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Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) vs Vectra AI comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.7
Cisco Secure IPS effectively detects threats and integrates with NIST, yielding positive ROI despite setup costs and financial quantification challenges.
Sentiment score
6.9
Companies using Vectra AI saw increased security efficiency, reduced costs, and improved productivity with faster, effective threat response.
The payback period is roughly six months.
Strategic RAN Lead | Network Transformation & Optimization | Philippines & South Africa at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.2
Cisco Secure IPS customer service is praised for expertise but noted for inconsistent response times and initial contact challenges.
Sentiment score
8.0
Users generally find Vectra AI's support team responsive and knowledgeable, despite occasional delays, rating their experience highly.
Fortinet, on the other hand, offers quicker response times and same-day RMAs, which gives them an edge in customer service.
Head Of Technical Operations at ITE
The response was fast, and they provided experts to solve our issues quickly.
IT Infrastructure Manager at TMLI
A few years ago, I had a very bad situation. We lost a lot of money, and I opened for the first time in my life, a case with priority one. The person responsible for the ticket didn't respond for two days.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The support is quite reliable depending on the service engineer assigned.
Cyber Security Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
When I create tickets, the response is fast, and issues are solved promptly.
Planning& Performance Analyst at National Information Center, Ministry of Interior, Saudi Arabia
Customer support receives a rating of nine out of ten due to being very supportive and responding quite efficiently.
Strategic RAN Lead | Network Transformation & Optimization | Philippines & South Africa at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Cisco Secure IPS scalability varies; effective for large environments but may need upgrades for extensive user capacity.
Sentiment score
7.3
Vectra AI excels in scalable deployments and adaptability across environments, handling diverse network sizes with ongoing feature enhancements.
Vectra AI is scalable because it can work through different kinds of solutions and is compatible with all kinds of cloud solutions.
Strategic RAN Lead | Network Transformation & Optimization | Philippines & South Africa at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Cisco Secure IPS is stable but has bugs; continuous improvements are needed to compete with Fortinet and Palo Alto.
Sentiment score
8.0
Vectra AI is reliable and stable with efficient performance, minimal downtime, and swift resolutions for occasional hardware issues.
The software situation with Cisco is problematic.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Secure IPS needs better SIEM integration, user interface, stability, reporting, scalability, pricing, support, and cloud and endpoint integration.
Vectra AI needs improved threat precision, integration, architecture, and expanded threat detection to better support SOC teams.
Incorporating AI capabilities would enhance its functionality.
IT Infrastructure Manager at TMLI
CLI is very important in professional working, and it was an unwise decision by Cisco to remove it.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
ExtraHop's ability to decrypt encrypted data is a feature that Vectra AI lacks.
Planning& Performance Analyst at National Information Center, Ministry of Interior, Saudi Arabia
You need to have a Linux server, and from the Linux server, you must perform AI tasks, and there is a lot to be handled in the back end.
Owner at Fortibits
All threats, including hacking attempts, should be comprehensively addressed.
Consultant at a retailer with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Secure IPS is costly, especially versus competitors, with pricing influenced by features, support, and potential bundling discounts.
Vectra AI is expensive but competitive, valued for quality despite complex licensing and added cloud solution costs.
It's cheaper to integrate with existing IT security solutions compared to other expensive brands with subscription costs.
IT Infrastructure Manager at TMLI
Vectra is cheaper in terms of pricing and features compared to Darktrace.
Cyber Security Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It is very acceptable when you compare it with Darktrace, for example.
Owner at Fortibits
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Secure IPS provides robust protection with strong integration, intelligence, and ease of use for comprehensive cybersecurity measures.
Vectra AI enhances threat management with AI-driven detection, alert reduction, tool integration, user interface, and real-time response.
Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) is quite powerful for threat detection and includes botnet detection.
IT Infrastructure Manager at TMLI
They can discover new versions of malware, which is very beneficial.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Our company used Vectra AI to detect the malicious threats and viruses before they could cause more damage, and we successfully stopped the threats.
Consultant at a retailer with 5,001-10,000 employees
Alert noise was dramatically reduced by nearly 80%, allowing SOC analysts to focus more on true threats, which made them more productive and resulted in higher operational efficiency.
Strategic RAN Lead | Network Transformation & Optimization | Philippines & South Africa at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
There are extensive out-of-box detection capabilities.
Owner at Fortibits
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS)
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
11th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Vectra AI
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
Network Detection and Response (NDR) (2nd), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (16th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (11th), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) is 3.5%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Vectra AI is 7.6%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Vectra AI7.6%
Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS)3.5%
Other88.9%
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer373227 - PeerSpot reviewer
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Marketing strengths shine but regaining user trust needs significant effort
There are numerous things that could be improved about Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) to get it back on track. Sollution for small branches: when we have to connect a lot very small branches (or sometimes only an ATM) we need something small, with LTE and with reasonable price. Cisco response is SDWAN but it is not always the case. Recently Cisco released some small firewalls but I have not tried them yet. Central management with FMC is a very good idea, but sometimes local management or monitoring is helpfull. With Cisco You have to decide: central or local. You cannot have both. Regarding usability, when you commit configuration on Cisco, it sometimes takes very long. Commits also take some time for the competition, but Cisco is definitely lagging behind the rest in this respect. Last but not least, for me as a professional is lack of CLI. With CLI, I can configure every firewall on the market except Cisco. CLI is very important in professional working, and IMHO it was an unwise decision by Cisco to remove it. Graphical interfaces are very nice, but when you've got thousands of objects in a big installation and have to configure many things, CLI is a much faster way to do it.
RR
Consultant at a retailer with 5,001-10,000 employees
Threat detection has improved and malicious emails are now identified quickly
Vectra AI offers artificial intelligence capabilities with visibility that can be integrated into our day-to-day operations and other tools, including malware detection tools and cyber threat tools. Vectra AI has positively impacted my organization. Last year while using it, we received many malicious email threats and virus incidents, including a trojan virus that had reportedly been deployed by someone. Our company used Vectra AI to detect the malicious threats and viruses before they could cause more damage, and we successfully stopped the threats. Using Vectra AI, I notice that server downtime has decreased significantly. We now experience only two to three hours of downtime, whereas without Vectra AI and other tools, our downtime would exceed 48 to 72 hours.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) solutions are best for your needs.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
University
9%
Educational Organization
9%
Performing Arts
7%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise26
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise29
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco NGIPS?
The product's initial setup phase was easy.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco NGIPS?
Cisco is one of the top brands known for cost-effectiveness, making it worth the money. It's cheaper to integrate with existing IT security solutions compared to other expensive brands with subscri...
What needs improvement with Cisco NGIPS?
There are numerous things that could be improved about Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) to get it back on track. Sollution for small branches: when we have to connect a lot very small branches (or sometime...
What is the biggest difference between Corelight and Vectra AI?
The two platforms take a fundamentally different approach to NDR. Corelight is limited to use cases that require the eventual forwarding of events and parsed data logs to a security team’s SIEM or ...
What do you like most about Vectra AI?
The solution is currently used as a central threat detection and response system.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Vectra AI?
It is very acceptable when you compare it with Darktrace, for example.
 

Also Known As

Sourcefire NGIPS, Firepower NGIPS
Vectra Networks, Vectra AI NDR
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

American Electric Power, Huntington Bank, Keycorp, Nationwide, Transunion, Marriott, Inova Health, Ford, Thomson Reuters, Dow Chemical, Equifax, Chevron, Walmart, Coca Cola
Tribune Media Group, Barry University, Aruba Networks, Good Technology, Riverbed, Santa Clara University, Securities Exchange, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) vs. Vectra AI and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.